COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES

NIKE PART TWO

   “The road is sandy and there are bushes all around it. It looked abandoned, like no one passed it. Everywhere looked neat, there were no wrappers of food, bottles of drinks on the road.”

  “At what time did the incident happen?”

  “I can’t really say. When I turned on my phone after we left the stadium, it was about 8:05”

  “Why did you three leave the stadium that late?”

  “The competition was meant to start by 2 but it started by 3 and some schools came late. There were a lot of events that held so it took much time”

  “Did you notice any unusual behavior among the offenders before the incident happened?”
  “Nope.”

 “Did you sense something was wrong when you passed the road?”

 “No. We pass the road sometimes when we’re about to leave the stadium. The road is a shortcut that leads to outside of the stadium. When the crowd is much that wants to leave the stadium, we go through the road instead.”

  “Since the day the three of you passed the road, have you noticed anyone on that road with you. Either behind or in front of you?”

  “Few people. I can count like six people”

  “Can you tell how many minutes it takes from the road to the main road?”

  She thought about it for a while before saying, “10 minutes. I guess. I’m not that sure”

  “Can you remember what they wore?”

  “Yes. Tayo wore a black jeans, a black shirt with a red varsity jacket and a white sneakers while James wore a white short, a blue polo shirt and black and white stripped sneakers”

  “Can you explain how the incident occurred? I need you to explain in details”

  “Like I’ve said, we passed the road because the crowd leaving the stadium was much. It was dark when we got out of the stadium and we turned on our phone’s torchlight. I think we walked for about 5 minutes and James put his leg out and I fell. I thought it was a joke because we play like that at times. I was laughing so hard and I told him and Tayo to pull me up. Their response was monotonous and I got scared a little bit. They said ‘no, we’re aren’t pulling you up’. I asked why they spoke in that tone, if anything was wrong but there was no response. I still thought it was a joke but what got me confused was when I didn’t see the sign of their phone’s torchlight but I saw their phones sticking out from their trousers pocket.
   I could see because my phone was upside down with the torchlight part facing up. I told them that since they won’t pull me and I don’t understand their sudden change of attitude, I will stand by myself. When I tried to get up to pick up my phone, Tayo pushed me down with his hands and kept my phone into the front pocket of his trousers. That’s when I knew there was a big problem and I panicked. My heart was literally beating fast, I’ve never been that scared in my life. I asked what was going on but none of them answered. Tayo stood in front of me and I have never seen that look on his face, he looked dangerous and he had this cold stone expression. James pulled him to the side and I saw that they were arguing and I used the opportunity to run. I called for help and I heard their footsteps behind me. I lost my footing and I fell. All of a sudden---” She burst into tears and her mum went to console her.

  “You can take a break before continuing,” Her mum told her.
  She took a break for some minutes and continued.

 “I heard the sound of a bag opening and I felt something on my mouth and my hands were tied to my back. During that moment, I didn’t know it was a duct tape they used. They took turns to hold my legs to remove their trousers. I tried to remove their grip from my legs but one of them slapped me. They were stronger than me anyway, so I couldn’t do anything. The first person who held my leg, cut out half of my jeans with my lap and the 2nd person did the same and they unzipped the jeans that was left and removed it. They took turns in raping me and it felt like they did it for 30 minutes or more. Each person took rounds in raping me. When they were done, they pulled my underwear up and ran”